Sonics/NHL/New arena thread

KitsapGuy

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The next phase in the arena/franchise process comes next week when Seattle Hockey Partners, the ownership group attempting to land the expansion team, presents before the NHL Board of Governors’ Executive Committee.

”It’s a good moment. I think it’s the beginning of the journey. It’s not the end of the journey. We have a lot of work to do, but at least now we get to go do the work,” said Tim Leiweke, CEO of Oak View Group, which is undertaking the renovation of the building that opened in 1962.

For now, the NHL is the priority. The pitch to the Executive Committee next week should be mostly straightforward. Seattle is the largest market in the United States that doesn’t have a winter professional sports team. The local economy is booming and season ticket deposits for the prospective team were cut off at 33,000 earlier this year after a swell of interest.

”I don’t think we have to say much,” said Tod Leiweke, President and CEO of Seattle Hockey Partners. ”I think it speaks for itself. An 8-0 vote, a process that concluded when many people said it just simply couldn’t be done. We said we were going to put our best forward and today the city helps us do that.”

The goal is to have the building ready by the fall of 2020 so a team could start that season. Hitting that target will depend partly on when construction can actually begin. Part of the agreement with the city requires that an NHL franchise be acquired before arena construction can begin. Whether conditional approval from the NHL or a recommendation from the Executive Committee is enough to begin that process may depend on the city.

Either way, Tim Leiweke said every minute is precious in getting the project done in essentially two years.

”But there is no reason that we can’t hopefully get a little bit of momentum next week and convince people that a November, push-dirt, get in there and start working, works,” Leiweke said.

https://nhl.nbcsports.com/2018/09/24/se ... 98367134=1
 

Msfann

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It's too bad they couldn't have done this 10 years ago and saved the Sonics. 10 years of the city jerking around and now they are remodeling the same building. Which is what the jerk owners wanted before they moved them.

Though I could care less about the NBA anymore. I can't wait for NHL.
 

Sgt. Largent

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chris98251":1fq900yv said:
But now they have to have a team committed before they will even move a shovel of dirt, do they vote again if someone brings a team here?


They don't have to have a team committed first, there just had to be a formal agreement with the NHL that WHEN the arena proposal is approved an expansion team will be granted............and that agreement with the NHL has been in place for over a year.

Now that the Key renovation has been approved, the ownership group and the NHL will give the official expansion announcement, probably sometime in October.
 

chris98251

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Sgt. Largent":30jdq8iv said:
chris98251":30jdq8iv said:
But now they have to have a team committed before they will even move a shovel of dirt, do they vote again if someone brings a team here?


They don't have to have a team committed first, there just had to be a formal agreement with the NHL that WHEN the arena proposal is approved an expansion team will be granted............and that agreement with the NHL has been in place for over a year.

Now that the Key renovation has been approved, the ownership group and the NHL will give the official expansion announcement, probably sometime in October.


Then why is this part of the statement, acquired means a team and ownership locked in.

Part of the agreement with the city requires that an NHL franchise be acquired before arena construction can begin
 

Sgt. Largent

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chris98251":68n293ud said:
Sgt. Largent":68n293ud said:
chris98251":68n293ud said:
But now they have to have a team committed before they will even move a shovel of dirt, do they vote again if someone brings a team here?


They don't have to have a team committed first, there just had to be a formal agreement with the NHL that WHEN the arena proposal is approved an expansion team will be granted............and that agreement with the NHL has been in place for over a year.

Now that the Key renovation has been approved, the ownership group and the NHL will give the official expansion announcement, probably sometime in October.


Then why is this part of the statement, acquired means a team and ownership locked in.

Part of the agreement with the city requires that an NHL franchise be acquired before arena construction can begin

I'm telling you how both sides got around the semantics of the councils demand for a team first.

The NHL demands an arena approval first before agreeing to an expansion team, and the city requires a team first before agreeing to approve the renovation project.

What I lined out above is how they got around it, a formal agreement in place so that both sides are happy..........and that's what happened.
 

KK84

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chris98251":29g9zj7u said:
Sgt. Largent":29g9zj7u said:
chris98251":29g9zj7u said:
But now they have to have a team committed before they will even move a shovel of dirt, do they vote again if someone brings a team here?


They don't have to have a team committed first, there just had to be a formal agreement with the NHL that WHEN the arena proposal is approved an expansion team will be granted............and that agreement with the NHL has been in place for over a year.

Now that the Key renovation has been approved, the ownership group and the NHL will give the official expansion announcement, probably sometime in October.


Then why is this part of the statement, acquired means a team and ownership locked in.

Part of the agreement with the city requires that an NHL franchise be acquired before arena construction can begin

Because you're missing the part of the agreement that says the SCC can waive that requirement if they wish to do so. Most everyone is under the impression that a recommendation from the committee on October 2nd could be enough to grant that waiver, as the BOG has never before ignored a recommendation from the committee.
 

chris98251

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One can hope I guess, but I have no faith in the Council, I hope your all right. Remember elections are coming again.
 

KK84

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chris98251":1u8vrgvk said:
One can hope I guess, but I have no faith in the Council, I hope your all right. Remember elections are coming again.

The SCC has done absolutely nothing to deserve faith. However it doesn't take faith to realize that a 100% privately funded plan that uses the city owned Key is the dream scenario for them. They would be downright irresponsible not to push this through, regardless of their moronic views on sports.
 

Sgt. Largent

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chris98251":k04o1oc8 said:
One can hope I guess, but I have no faith in the Council, I hope your all right. Remember elections are coming again.

The only faith you need with the SCC is to know that they're corrupt politicians who were never going to approve anything until they found a sucker to renovate Key Arena so they didn't have to pay for it.................and they found their sucker in the Oak View Group.

So don't worry Chris, not even they can screw this up. They found a developer who's going to spend over 700 million of it's own money to renovate a building that the city was losing money on, AND they can all do what they did Monday, take full credit to help all their re-election campaigns.
 
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Sports Hernia

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Sgt. Largent":29y0ifwf said:
chris98251":29y0ifwf said:
One can hope I guess, but I have no faith in the Council, I hope your all right. Remember elections are coming again.

The only faith you need with the SCC is to know that they're corrupt politicians who were never going to approve anything until they found a sucker to renovate Key Arena so they didn't have to pay for it.................and they found their sucker in the Oak View Group.

So don't worry Chris, not even they can screw this up. They found a developer who's going to spend over 700 million of it's own money to renovate a building that the city was losing money on, AND they can all do what they did Monday, take full credit to help all their re-election campaigns.
So much this. Great post! :2thumbs:
 

KitsapGuy

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[tweet]https://twitter.com/NBCSports/status/1047222242508263424[/tweet]

”I’m very confident we’re going to be able to move forward and get what we need from the NHL and the team and stick to the schedule so we have hockey in 2020,” Durkan said. ”They know we want it in 2020 and (the league would) like to have it in 2020, too, if we get the team.”

”With the mayor’s help, what we tried to get across was Seattle is ready for a team, we got potentially a facility that will get built, a partnership with the city and away we go,” Bonderman said. ”All we need is a franchise.”

All signs point to Seattle getting a team. Beyond the $650 million expansion fee, a team would give the NHL a presence in the U.S. Pacific Northwest with a natural geographic rival for the Vancouver Canucks and balance the Eastern and Western conferences at 16 teams each.

Leiweke, who along with brother Tim is spearheading the effort, was careful to say the group is not assuming a team is a done deal. The presentation was the latest and most important sell job, and now the league must make the next move.

”It’s the NHL who’s in control of this process,” Leiweke said. ”We’re not presumptuous, we’re not going to get in front of them and we’re not going to declare an early victory. We are going to wait and be patient and be completely respectful. It’s been a long time coming, and we can be patient.”
 

KitsapGuy

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[tweet]https://twitter.com/GaryKIRO7/status/1047225722383867905[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ChrisDaniels5/status/1047225621078794241[/tweet]
 

Sgt. Largent

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Hell to the yeah.

I know everyone said this was a formality, but we all know when it comes to the political landscape of Seattle, there's no such thing.
 

KK84

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Basically a done deal. The only thing that really remains to be seen is if the council will waive the clause and allow construction to start before the team is officially announced in December.
 
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Sports Hernia

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Sgt. Largent":1eh68tlu said:
Hell to the yeah.

I know everyone said this was a formality, but we all know when it comes to the political landscape of Seattle, there's no such thing.
BINGO! It’s a great day for us future Seattle NHL hockey fans. I cannot wait for the first puck to drop. :lol:
 
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Sports Hernia

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KK84":3ilme4m6 said:
Basically a done deal. The only thing that really remains to be seen is if the council will waive the clause and allow construction to start before the team is officially announced in December.
Let’s hope they pull their heads out. Might be the difference in the first season being in 2020 or 2021.
 

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Very exciting news! Hope it’s 2020. Any early ideas or rumors on the team name?
 
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